UK's drinking culture is straining health care system

[Liberal_in_LA]

Put down that glass: report warns that UK's drinking culture is straining health care system
By Meera Selva (CP) – 2 hours ago

LONDON — Just as Britons brew black coffee to cope with holiday hangovers, they are also digesting a new report that warns the country's notorious drinking culture is putting an unacceptable strain on hospitals and medical staff.

The cash-strapped National Health Service - the U.K.'s taxpayer-funded medical system - now spends 2.7 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) a year treating patients for drink-related problems, double the amount five years ago, the report said. Total funding for the health care system is currently around 100 billion pounds ($162 billion) a year.

The report - published by the NHS Confederation, a health-care providers organization, and the Royal College of Physicians, which represents doctors - warns that about 10.5 million adults in Britain drink above sensible limits, and 1.1 million people have some form of alcohol addiction. The government currently recommends that men should not drink more than three or four units of alcohol a day, and women should not drink more than two or three. A small glass of wine or beer has just over one unit.

One study at a hospital in Leeds, in northeast England, found that one-fifth of all emergency room admissions over four months were for alcohol-related conditions, the report said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jq6vbOqIdOm1oaB7ufnoxo65h5aQ

[HeresyLives]

1. And the question is, why?

[dipsydoodle]

3. Its effectively been encouraged

by pricing stuctures and happy hours. Note here from Nov. '08 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7718950.stm

[HeresyLives]

4. Not even cheap booze

will get people to drink to this extent, if they don't wish to.

My question is why do they wish to?

[JVS]

6. Booze in the UK is expensive

[BooScout]

49. Oh NO IT ISN'T

It's incredibly cheap. You can buy a six pack of lagers cheaper than you can buy a six pack of cokes. Tesco, ASDA and the other supermarkets sell booze for less than they pay for it to get the punters into the stores. They call the booze a 'loss leader' and it works. They are effectively killing off the high streets in the UK. Their cheap booze draws the consumers in, the High Street shops lose their business, the pubs lose business and half the population is wandering around drunk.

[bettyellen]

7. it seems a fact f life in Northern countries- from GB to Norway, Germany and Russia

and the Dutch much more so than the Mediterranean. Maybe it's SAD or staying indoors so much but it;s part of the culture there and getting worse. I was reading about a whole lot of vacation towns that will not take reservations from groups of Brits or Dutch.. they just don;t want to vibe taking over. Or the property damage.

[Cronus Protagonist]

9. When you buy a round, 6 friends, you don't want to leave until you've had 6 yourself!

I used to go out and sometimes had as many ar 8 or 10 friends in my group. When I bought my round, it cost as much, often more than that day's rent. Damn sure I'm going to hang around until everyone else has bought me a drink back (give or take one or two).

I didn't participate in this set up once I was mature enough to battle against the peer pressure, but it is so much a part of the culture in Britain that it could only be sorted by a broad acceptance of people only buying their own drinks.

And booze is very expensive there. Doesn't faze anyone.

[HipChick]

25. Nah..mate..on yer bike..

As long as Pubs have been around, its always been a national pastime. Since smoking was effectively banned in pubs,more people have taken to staying at home to drink. Another big problem was the Old Bill would stake out the car parks and nab people coming out from the pubs,DUI are pretty expensive there.

[Gregorian]

8. It's cold.

And there are pubs.

Otherwise, I've been trying to figure this out for a long time now. I spend quite a lot of time on a British art forum. And it's just the strangest thing to see all of the discussion regarding vomit. We're a bunch of ninnies over here. I never even heard of Absynth before.

[HipChick]

27. It's actually called Absinthe...and I agree about the ninnies

[Gregorian]

31. I'm one of the ninnies now!

:(

I drank so much I ended up sick. Now I can't drink at all. I had a bottle of champagne the night Obama was elected, and it nearly killed me. I'm really bummed out.

So I'm telling you this because...

Because I used to be so cool. And now I'm so boring. :)

[HipChick]

32. lol! the drinking age starts a lot earlier in the UK...I barely drink now

In fact, only beers and wine socially..I won't even look at spirits..one time I drank some Patron...never again

[virgogal]

2. Drinking,smoking,and obesity all put a strain on health insurers.

[Cronus Protagonist]

10. Yeah, like they have much health "insurance" over there

That's only for the VERY rich, and for special circumstances. They have health CARE in Britain, not health "insurance" like here.

[JVS]

5. With the exception of drinking age, UK policies are absolutely goofy

Weird pub hours, large excise taxes on spirits and beer taxed on strength, cider being exempt to preserve an old industry but giving rise to new "ciders" that are more akin to US malt liquor. There are so many roadblocks placed in the way of those who want to engage in moderate, convenient, and inexpensive drinking that people seem to go to extremes, either shelling out a good deal for a big night out or searching for the cheapest way to get as drunk as possible.

[Cronus Protagonist]

11. Cider in the UK has always been super, super strong

The excise tax has nothing to do with the strength of cider. In Scotland, the pubs are open 24 hours if they want to - reduced alcoholism dramatically. In England, the hours are local and often end at ten or eleven in some bars, which makes people binge drink near closing time to get the rounds evened out. I've "had" to down three or four pints of beer in ten minutes many times at the end of a night if the bar closes early.

[JVS]

14. The traditional style ciders are about the same as a US beer, brands like...

White Lightning are stronger. UK beer is generally weaker than German and US beers.

[Cronus Protagonist]

18. lol

Compare a bud, a miller light and any British beer and get back to me. The pisswater that passes for regular beer over here wouldn't be good enough to clean the glasses with in the UK.

[HipChick]

23. Ask for a US beer in a British Pub and watch the reaction..

:evilgrin:

[vadawg]

42. what reaction, its pretty common for people in the Uk to drink american beers

also german beers, australian beers, beers from all over, usually the beer drank is the cheapest on offer,

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. To clear up some points in this sub-thread

In England, pubs are now in theory allowed 24 hour opening, since 2005. However, very few have actually wanted to do this; many, but not even a majority, have just decided to stay open an extra hour or so (past the 11pm that used to be the normal limit for pubs, though exceptions could be made with sneaky designations as 'clubs') on the nights when it's worth their while, eg Friday and Saturday. From a govt report, for a Saturday night:

o Overall picture is of evolution not revolution:
o Average closing times across all on-licensed premises in England and Wales increased by 21 minutes
o 56% of all premises in survey still closed at 11pm (68% under old regime).
o 7% closed at 11.30pm (4% under old regime)
o 17% closed at midnight (9% under old regime)
o Little change in hours beyond midnight (1% more closing at 1am and 3am)

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.culture.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1BDA71E1-97D9-42D5-8F3D-0860F2B3166D/0/Licensingevaluation.pdf

The basic rule is that a licence should be granted for whatever hours are asked for, unless the authority has reason to think it'll cause trouble.

Cider does have a weird excise tax regime - all cider up to 7.5% alcohol is taxed at the rate that 2% beer would be taxed at (and wines and spirits are taxed in roughly the same proportion, for their alcohol content, as beer), and cider between 7.5% and 8.5% at the rate of beer at 3%; so there is an industry of cheap, nasty cider at just under 7.5%, or just under 8.5%, alcohol, such as the above-mentioned White Lightning, which is purely for getting drunk on - no-one claims it tastes nice. And that leads to things like this:

Police divers hunting for missing schoolboy Jordan Trowsdale recovered a body from the river on Christmas Day , near where the boy was last seen on Christmas Eve.

Jordan, 13, said goodbye to his friends at a local skate park in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, late on Thursday afternoon with the intention of walking back to his home, less than half a mile away. The teenager had drunk four cans of strong cider during the day. His friends said he was in "high spirits".
...
Jordan had allegedly been drinking 'K' cider, which is around 8% in strength.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/27/missing-boy-bishops-stortford-body-river

4 cans - 1.8 litres - of 8.4% cider is equivalent to about one and a half bottles of wine. And costs about £3, or $5, from a supermarket, according to a web price search. Cheap enough for a 13 year old to get drunk enough to fall in a river and kill himself.

Plain Budweiser seems to be 5% ABV (alcohol by volume), normally (eg http://www.realbeer.com/edu/health/calories.php ); which is actually stronger than most British bitters; for instance, Marston's Pedigree is 4.5% ABV, while Green King IPA is as low as 3.6%. Miller Lite is 4.2% ABV. I'll agree that as far as taste goes, Budweiser and Miller Lite are in the dishwater category, though.

Sadly, marketing has made Budweiser quite popular in the UK, and you wouldn't be laughed at by the bar staff for asking for it, unless you're in a rare hard-core real ale pub.

the beer is one of the leading premium bottled/canned lagers, with something like three per cent of the UK beer market

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/takeover-bid-for-londons-biggest-brewer/

Three percent may not sound much, but it's significant in a fragmented market.

[HipChick]

33. Pubs are closing down at a record rate too..ever since the smoking ban

[BooScout]

50. No it isn't.....

Where do you come up with that? Cider in the UK is often around 8.5 in alcohol content. In the US the alcoholic content on cider will run around 5 percent. The reason so many drink cider here in the UK is because the alcoholic content is so much higher than the lagers. It's a cheap drunk.

[Fumesucker]

12. They'd be a lot better off to legalize cannabis and make alcohol illegal

At least health wise anyway. :evilgrin:

Would probably cut down on the inebriated violence too, although the bootleggers would get violent pretty quickly.

[LeftishBrit]

13. Not one bit surprised.

I don't know whether Brits drink more in total than other countries, but there is a definite 'binge-drinking' culture among young people in particular, which often leads to accidents, fights, and resulting ambulance trips to the A&E department.

[enlightenment]

16. I suspect that were one to compare the US and the UK

in terms of binge drinking, drink driving, accidents, fights, etc - that the two would look very much the same.

This just seems like the latest in the UK nanny state, focusing its beady eye on the next offensive behaviour. Look at the splash of articles that have hit the press in the last WEEK - binge drinking; 'over-pouring' at home . . . they're going to go after booze just like they did tobacco - and when they're satisfied that they've rid Albion of the scourge of alcohol, they'll find a new sin on which to focus their sights.

Watch them - first it will be the articles, then it will be a lot of carefully presented statistics - not wrong in and of themselves, but presented in a misleading way. There was some of that in the 'over-pouring' articles . . . (paraphrasing) 'women are pouring the equivalent of TWO glasses of wine into their glass at night!!!!' Oh, NO! Why that's their entire quota of units in ONE glass - they're drinking themselves to death, they are . . .!

Except for neglecting to mention whether or not the survey indicated that these women DRANK more than one of these double-sized glasses of wine.

I'm not saying that there isn't an issue with binge-drinking, particularly among the young - but that's not what they're trying to address. This is the beginning of a concerted attack on alcohol consumption, full stop.

Meh.

[LeftishBrit]

20. Don't worry...

Brits would never accept prohibition of alcohol. Ever. And no government would ever seriously try it, as they get so much revenue from it.

Neither drinking, nor complaints about it, are new.

E.g. from an early 19th century folk song:

For I likes a drop of good beer, I do,
I likes a drop of good beer
And damn his eyes whoever tries
To rob a poor man of his beer...


There is of course some hypocrisy in prohibiting marijuana when far more people are adversely affected by alcohol; but that is common to many countries.

[enlightenment]

21. I'm not worried - it's just annoying.

Of course, the government gets a boatload of revenue from tobacco tax as well and they would completely ban it tomorrow it they could (and then they could try and explain that shortfall in NHS funding . . .)

*disclaimer: I don't smoke and I drink very little . . . but I hate the nanny state*

[Don Caballero]

15. Drinking is fun and it makes you feel good

Why are they trying to ruin our party? We are just looking to have a good time.

[Fumesucker]

17. Talking to Ralph on the Big White Phone about a Buiiiicck on the other hand

Is most definitely *not* fun and is a regular result of overenthusiastic imbibing..

I haven't done that since my thirtieth birthday, twenty nine years ago..

[Don Caballero]

19. I like to drink to get wasted, blind drunk

I never drive when I am intoxicated, but love drinking till I black out. It is great fun with my mates.

[vadawg]

38. yup getting rat arsed is the whole point of a night out...

a couple of bottles of buckie and some chips and then doing some crazy shit whilst pissed.... :)

[Don Caballero]

52. I don't know what buckie is but if it is booze I will mainline it.

Cherry O then.

[seeinfweggos]

22. Work is the curse of the drinking class." Oscar Wilde

[Shagbark Hickory]

24. They live so much longer than we do., they might be on to something.

[HipChick]

26. they are not as uptight as the US being PC

about staying healthy - obesity rates in comparison for instance- not the huge drive to make smokers an ostracized class...yeah..I think they are onto something..

[KamaAina]

28. I thought UK meant the University of Kentucky!

:rofl:

[Sultana]

30. The culture of partying

The students go out every night, it crazy!

[liberal_at_heart]

34. There are drunks all over the world including here in the US

My daughter will be going to college in a few years and I am so scared. Binge drinking is out of control on US college campuses. I would much rather teach her how to have half a glass of wine with dinner as opposed to sending her off to drink 21 shots for her 21st birthday at college. But I know we're not allowed to teach them how to drink responsibly. We're just suppose to tell them not to drink and then ship them off to college so that their friends can convince them to binge drink. Yes, it is always healthier to have friends educate your child about drinking than a responsible parent. My husband, my kids and I were all out at Denny's having dinner tonight. There were two eighteen year olds girls behind us. I know how old they were because the waiter asked them how old they were and they told him. The two girls were talking about how drunk they had gotten at a party and how one of them had foolishly taken a drink a guy had made for her and thought she probably shouldn't have done that. Duh!

[JCMach1]

35. Ummm... our British cousins drink like fish- Americans are teetotalers

in comparison...

I didn't know that until I got to live around so many... pretty scary actually.

[liberal_at_heart]

36. depends on who you know

My husband knows several people from the UK including from Scotland. And yes they do drink alot. But my husband has far more drunk people in his family that have died from their alocoholism than any of his UK friends. I guess everybody's experience is different but there are lots of drunks everywhere. What's really sad is to watch someone drink themselves to death no matter what country they are in.

[JCMach1]

39. The scary part is just how much it is part and parcel of British culture

or, at least modern British culture...

Having had alcoholics in my family who essentially drank themselves to death, I certainly understand that it exists in America too.

However, I think there is still some good old-fashioned Puritan stigmatization that accompanies the alcohol culture here.

I don't think Britain has that these days.

[vadawg]

41. pub culture is more prevailant in the UK culture...

also i think there is less of a drink to get hammered culture in the US apart from the the hardcore alkies and the homeless guys on meth...

[liberal_at_heart]

44. every time my husband gets together with his buddies he ends up cleaning up someone's puke

This is in the US and these are guys in their 30's. You'd think they would have outgrown this by now, but nope. My husband drinks moderately so he is usually the most sober one of the bunch and because he is the most sober one of the bunch he gets to clean up after everybody. Most of the time I have to go pick my husband up because most of his friends(grown friends, in their 30s, who have families, and good high paying careers) drive drunk. My husband is legally blind and can't drive. And don't get me started on my brother in law and his friends. My brother in law's friend was riding a 4 wheeler drunk, crashed, and broke his neck.

[liberal_at_heart]

43. I have to disagree with the whole Puritan stigmatization

Americans have a love affair with alcohol and a violent one at that. When the country tried to prohibit it not only did you have mafia selling it but country folk who were proud of their distilleries. And the love affair with alcohol still exists today. The only reason alcohol is legal and marijuana isn't is because people violently protested the prohibition of alcohol. There is much more of a stigma against marijuana in the US than there is of alcohol but the stigma against marijuana is beginning to lessen. But there is no doubt alcoholism is a problem in lots of parts of the world and I'm sure Britain is no exception.

[JCMach1]

45. Britain never had prohibition... we did

And there is still that strain of conservatism that runs through our culture.

[vadawg]

46. i would say on a lot of levels, the US is much more conservative than the UK

especially when it comes to social issues, not that the UK dosent suck as well sometimes but the Drinking culture is a lot more lenient for want of a better word...

[liberal_at_heart]

47. okay I don't know what kind of "who's the worse drunk" contest we're having here

but we will just have to agree to disagree. Alcoholism is a problem all over the world including here in the US and in Britain. As to which nation is the worst drunk I'm just going to leave that one alone.

[JCMach1]

48. Don't want to beat a dead horse, but I think the OP is essentially right in the scope of the problem

in the UK

I am not just stating opinion:


...Results of a literature review of 18 studies investigating the drinking behaviour of undergraduate students at UK universities over a period of 25 years are presented. While comparison between studies is complicated by inconsistencies in the terms employed to describe drinking behaviour, it is concluded that significant numbers of both male and female students are reported to exceed sensible weekly consumption guidelines. Recorded levels of binge drinking among both female and male students are extremely variable between studies. Further research is needed to clarify this position. However, if the most recent research evidence is substantiated, female and male binge drinking levels may exceed those of their peers in the general population and their US counterparts. The reported ramifications of harmful drinking for the health and well-being of students are reviewed.... http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/37/2/109


Hey but it's not all bad... Apparently, the UK is not the worst in Europe. It seems the Spanish are worse binge drinkers. http://www.ias.org.uk/resources/papers/europe/phproject/bingedrinking-report.pdf

[BooScout]

51. Not really.....

Having lived in the US and the UK.....the Brits definately drink more than their American cousins. I blame it on the weather and the lack of Baptists.:evilgrin:

[saltpoint]

37. Good post. Timely, too.

Excellent.

:thumbsup:

[apocalypsehow]

40. At least they're not soiling their morals & Jerry Falwell cred. by giving in to eating at Hooters...

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

53. th UK just fired a scientist for saying that cannabis is safer!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/30/david-nutt-drugs-adviser-sacked

Alan Johnson, the home secretary, has sacked Professor David Nutt as senior drugs adviser after the scientist renewed his criticism of the government's decision to toughen the law on cannabis.

Johnson wrote to Nutt saying he no longer had confidence in him as chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) and asking him to consider his position.

Nutt had accused ministers of "devaluing and distorting" the scientific evidence over illicit drugs by their decision last year to reclassify cannabis from class C to class B against the advice of the ACMD....

The decision follows the publication of a paper by the Centre for Crime and Justice at King's College London, based on a lecture Nutt delivered in July. He repeated his familiar view that illicit drugs should be classified according to the actual evidence of the harm they cause and pointed out that alcohol and tobacco caused more harm than LSD, ecstasy and cannabis."